The water in Columbus has never gotten very high ratings from the water drinkers in Columbus and since I've been obsessing on the water of late I've found some interesting things!
For one thing the concerns about the high amount of chlorine in our water are unfounded! Yes there is chlorine but not that much, only 0.29ppm. When compared to Tucson AZ which has between 1.00 and 1.25ppm. You know like the BAD Chlorine where you can smell the water in the next room? (Sun Prairie is 0.22ish).
I believe the reason Cbus has bad tasting water is the high amount of Sodium which is at 106ppm. Our water is high in both bicarbonates and sodium. In other words it's as if we added baking soda to all of our water. This is why it tastes so . . . flat and not that clean refreshing tastes.
In beer the sodium accentuates sweetness. This is why all my brews always seem to be a little sweeter then I expected. The Dunkleweise (spelling checker said "do you mean Budweiser" - seriously? sigh) at Hydro Street, while good does seem a tiny bit sweet (although this is the lowest amount of IBUs I've ever had in a beer . . which is a measure of hops)! We shall see what the judges say as I'm entering it in a contest.
The sodium is there because it replaced the calcium at some point which is very low. Calcium is needed for clarity, flavor and stability in beer and yeast really need calcium.
SO - at this point.
Not a lot of Chlorine in our water - however a LOT of sodium that has replaced calcium which is needed it beer.
Many brewers are overly concerned with PH when they really should be looking deeper. PH is like a one number Cholesterol reading. In order to FIX it you need to dive deeper into the problem. In our case it's lack of calcium and too much sodium.
Letting water sit overnight will get out any chlorine.
So you would THINK that adding calcium would be easy - gypsum is the normal way t go but to get THAT much calcium into the water would make it horrible tasting. So we are now looking into adding lactic acid instead.
If interested - this is a map of water hardness (CaCO3). We are at 248ppm
The investigation continues! Sorry sorry - I can't stop thinking about water . . . I gotta pee.
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Anybody watch DownTON Abby (not DonTOWN Abby which I though it was).
SNL had a faux advertisement about it and now I feel I need to watch it . . . not gonna do it. My plate is full. Hell on Wheels keeps getting better and better, Person of Interest also keeps getting better.
Did I mention how much sodium is on our water? The Bicarbonates are REALLY high! Not even good for dark beer - have to figure that one out! SHUT UP STEP AWAY FROM THE REPORT!!!
OK - I have to get real work done today!
OUT
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